"Microsoft's communications chief has a tough job these days, and with Windows 8 is under attack from all sides he's bravely called for a return to the center and a less partisan conversation about the new OS. There's just one problem: The periodicals he’s called out for engaging in 'sensationalism and hyperbole' are in fact right about Microsoft's strategy. And ignoring that is the real problem."

That's the thing about Windows - inferior OS, superior apps. And the FOSS community really doesn't do themselves any favors by releasing many of Linux's best apps on Windows. Just ensures that Windows users have the best of both worlds, giving them little incentive to switch.

As for Windows 8, we've talked about this at length in another thread, but I got used to it faster than Windows 7. When I upgraded from XP to 7, I found that MS had re-arranged the entire control panel and most of the settings dialogs, forcing me to relearn where everything was. Compared to that, adjusting to the new start screen was a breeze

Now I like Windows 8, esp things like task bars on multiple monitors, native ISO mounting, a decent task/startup manager, the ability to pause while copying, and a handful of other things I used to have to install 3rd party utils for. If you ignore metro and stay in the desktop, it really is superior to Win7, and I would never go back, unless forced to.

For the record, I have been using Linux full time for over 6 years now ;-) I may come to a rough edge now and then but I really like being able to configure my system exactly how I like it. Others may enjoy Windows 8/7/Whatever and this is fine. I just dont!

May I know why you prefer memorizing "where" is the function instead of "search" for the function?

I would ask start menu devotees the same question

Seriously though, some things can be found by searching, and some can't. For example, if you want to change the drive letters for your various disks, try searching for 'change drive letter'.

Also other things changed, such as you used to be able to change boot up order via the Advanced settings in My Computer. Now you need a BCD util. It's not bad, but just takes some time to get used to ...

And the FOSS community really doesn't do themselves any favors by releasing many of Linux's best apps on Windows. Just ensures that Windows users have the best of both worlds, giving them little incentive to switch.

Hmm... I disagree.

Once I had all my family members using Firefox and Chromium, LibreOffice, Inkscape, and a multitude of other cross-platform applications instead of Windows-only options - I was able to swap out Windows entirely for Linux, and the learning curve was minimal.

At one point, my kids were using a Linux Mint laptop I had lying around in my office and didn't really care - because all the same app icons were present that they were used to on the windows machines.

That's the thing about Windows - inferior OS, superior apps. And the FOSS community really doesn't do themselves any favors by releasing many of Linux's best apps on Windows. Just ensures that Windows users have the best of both worlds, giving them little incentive to switch.

If the original developers don't realease a Windows build some one else will and if you prohibit that it's no longer FOSS.